“I want to!” Jake shifted his paws, adding quietly, “If you don’t mind, that is.”
Talltail glanced at the ground, feeling hot. “I don’t mind,” he murmured. “It’s good to have company.”
“That’s settled, then.” Jake marched away, tail high. “I know it’s your mission, and I won’t put my whiskers where they don’t belong.” He plunged past a clump of shriveled ferns. “But I can help you track Sparrow down. After that, it’s up to you.”
Talltail purred. “Thanks, Jake.” He tasted the air. “Er, you do know that you’re heading the wrong way, don’t you?” The scent trail headed along a ridge in the forest floor. Jake was tramping uphill, veering away through the trees.
Jake stopped and tasted the air. “I am?” His ears flattened. “Maybe you should lead the way,” he mewed.
Amused, Talltail headed along the ridge, his paws slipping on the layer of decaying leaves. He was used to grass and peat, firm turf that sprang beneath his feet. Jake trotted beside him, more at ease with the slippery trail, until brambles started to crowd the path.
“Ow!” Jake tripped over a prickly tendril, hopping on three legs and shaking his injured paw.
“Are you okay?” Talltail stopped and sniffed Jake’s leg. No blood scent.
“I’d be better if that hadn’t tripped me up.” Jake glared at the bramble.
Talltail scanned the woods. The scent trail headed through bracken where fallen branches and rotting logs crisscrossed the forest floor, echoing the tangled canopy above. The rogues seemed to tackle every obstacle head-on, moving forward regardless of the territory.
“Come on.” Talltail padded around the bramble, watching for spiky tendrils. He hopped over a fallen branch and pushed his way into the bracken. Broken stems showed the rogues’ trail, tainted with their scent. A decaying tree lay across the path and he scrambled over it, his paws slipping on the slimy moss. On the other side, the ground turned boggy. Talltail slowed as the sucking mud dragged at his paws.
“I thought you said that rogues chose the easiest path,” Jake grunted, shaking mud from his forepaw.
“It was probably frozen when they passed,” Talltail guessed.
“Can you tell how old the scents are?” Jake scrambled onto harder ground and shook crumbs of leaf litter from his whiskers.
“No. The smell’s quite fresh,” Talltail told him. “But the frost might have preserved it.” He glanced at the sky, gray above the treetops. “Come on.” He pulled his paws free of the cloying mud. “If it starts raining, the scents might be washed away.”
The trees here were younger and thicker, their leaf-bare branches jutting low to the ground. Talltail had to keep low, ducking one branch and leaping another like a squirrel. He heard wood crack and split as Jake blundered after him. Talltail stopped and turned, breathless, as they reached a clearing.
“This is tough going—” Jake’s gaze flashed with alarm. “Look out!” He barged past Talltail, his orange pelt bushing out.
Where are you going? Talltail whipped around. A dark russet shape was blazing toward them. Fox!
Jake hurled himself in its path as the fox lunged at Talltail. The kittypet reared up and slashed at the fox’s muzzle. The fox ducked away, showing its sharp, yellow teeth, then sprang at Jake again. Quick as a bird, Talltail shot forward, slicing the fox’s muzzle. The fox yelped, eyes sparking with rage. Talltail felt fur brush his flank. Jake was beside him. Talltail reared up on his hind legs as the fox attacked again. Jake reared up too. Talltail launched a flurry of blows at the fox and Jake joined in.
The fox snapped at them—one side, then the other. Talltail’s claws hooked flesh, and he felt blood spurt against his cheek. The fox yelped, then growled, its eyes narrowing. Talltail’s heart lurched. We’re just making it angry! He glanced sideways at Jake. Eyes narrow, ears flat, Jake was hissing as viciously as any warrior. He slammed a front paw against the fox’s muzzle. Talltail matched his blow. They fell into a steady rhythm, lashing out at the fox with relentless fury. Then Talltail stumbled over a fallen twig. He lost his balance and dropped onto all fours. Jake dropped beside him. Talltail let the momentum take him down to the ground and rolled all the way over. Jake rolled with him, and they leaped to their paws beside the fox’s flank and began swiping again. The fox shrieked.
“He can’t fight us both!” Talltail yowled with a rush of triumph.
“Can you hold him while I go for his tail?” Jake called back.
“Not for long.” Talltail gritted his teeth and lashed out even more fiercely as Jake darted toward the fox’s haunches and clamped his teeth around the base of its tail. Talltail heard a crunch as Jake bit down hard. The fox writhed, yelping, and as Jake let go, it tore past Talltail and fled away through the trees. Talltail dropped onto all fours, panting. His forepaw stung where the fox’s teeth had grazed it.
“Did it hurt you?” Jake was at his side in a moment, sniffing for wounds.
“Just a scratch.” Talltail showed him the scrape along his paw. “Not deep. Barkface would treat it with dock.”
“I’ll find some.” Jake trotted away past the ferns. He was back a few moments later with a wad of dock in his jaws. He dropped it at Talltail’s paws. Lumps of fur were sticking out around Jake’s neck, and his orange pelt was darkened with spots of blood.
Talltail sat down. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve had worse wounds from next door’s tom.” He dipped his head to show Talltail a long-healed nick in his ear.
Talltail sniffed it, a rush of gratitude sweeping through him as Jake’s warm scent touched his nose. “Thank you, Jake,” he murmured.
“What for?” Jake straightened up.
“You saved my life.” Talltail paused. “Again.”
Jake purred. “No problem.” He sniffed the dock. “Do you wrap this around your paw or what?”
“You chew it and lick it into the wound,” Talltail told him. Jake wrinkled his nose. Talltail’s whiskers twitched with amusement. “It’s okay. I can do it myself.” He grabbed a leaf in his jaws and began chewing.
Jake watched as he pulped it and worked it into the scratch with his tongue. “Will that really make it better?”
“It’ll stop the wound from going bad,” Talltail meowed.
Jake waited until Talltail had used up all of the leaf. “Can you walk?” he asked.
Talltail’s wound stung and his hind leg ached where he’d strained it, rearing up. But he wanted to keep following the rogues’ scent. A heavy shower might wash it away. “I’m fine,” he insisted. He limped across the clearing, sniffing the ground, his tail twitching as he picked up Reena’s scent. Algernon’s and Sparrow’s mingled with it, and he could smell Bess and Mole, too. He followed the trail through a hawthorn bush and past a gorse thicket, stumbling as leaves slid beneath his paws. Jake darted to his side, pressing against him.
“Lean on me,” he ordered.
“I’m okay,” Talltail meowed, but he let some of his weight rest against Jake’s soft shoulder. They padded on through the forest, Talltail sniffing for scent, Jake watching the ground for twigs and ruts. Talltail slowed as he saw the forest lighten ahead. They must be near the edge.
Jake stiffened beside him. “Can you hear that?”
Talltail pricked his ears. A buzzing, like swarming bees, hummed in the distance. “What is it?” A Thunderpath stench touched his nose, but the noise was too whiny to be monsters.
“It sounds like a grass-cutter,” Jake told him.
Talltail blinked at him. “A what?”
“The Twolegs use them to shave the grass.”
Twolegs are rabbit-brains. Talltail strained to see past the trees. “Why would they be using one here?”
Jake sniffed. “Perhaps there’s a den beyond the trees.”
“Let’s find out.”
They crept through the trunks, slowing as they neared the edge of the woods. Talltail flattened his ears as the buzzing pierced his pelt, much louder now. The ground trembled
beneath his paws. As they broke from the trees, Talltail halted. A hillside sloped past them. The grass had been churned into wide circles of mud as though huge claws had reached down and raked it. The Thunderpath stench was so strong, Jake coughed. “That’s not a grass-cutter,” he choked. “What is it?”
The buzzing had grown to a roar—to countless roars, which were rolling toward them over the crest of the slope.
“We should stick to the side of the woods,” Jake suggested hoarsely. “It might be quieter at the bottom of the valley.”
Talltail could feel him trembling. The ground trembled even more. “Perhaps we should head back into the forest,” he growled over the noise. “We can pick up the trail farther down—” He stopped as a deafening roar exploded around them, so loud that it blasted them to the spot.
Three huge shapes were speeding over the rise, bouncing over the churned grass toward them. Each ran on two black spinning paws that threw up mud in a wave behind them. Twolegs sat astride, hunkered down over the monsters’ dirt-spattered bodies. Talltail froze, choking as Thunderpath stench rolled over him. Heat pulsed toward him.
StarClan, help us! Talltail closed his eyes as a heavy lump of mud hit his flank. More sprayed his cheek. He flinched away, pressing himself against Jake, and braced for searing pain and darkness to swamp him.
The roaring eased. Talltail peered through slitted eyes as mud rained down around them. The monsters were lurching away, heading downslope until they disappeared around the corner of the trees. Talltail struggled to get his breath, his flank throbbing where earth had battered it. “Jake?” He lifted his head. “Jake, are you hurt?” He could feel the kittypet pressing stiffly against him.
“You crow-brains!”
That’s not Jake. Talltail looked up. On the slope above, a tom glared down at them. With a gasp, Talltail recognized the creamy, brown pelt of Algernon.
Reena stood beside him, her eyes round with shock. “Why didn’t you run? You could have been killed!”
Algernon swished his tail. “You just stood there like lumps of wood!” He paused, his eyes widening. “Tallpaw?”
Reena pushed past him. “Tallpaw!” She pricked her ears. “Is that you?”
CHAPTER 35
The roar of the monsters hung in the air, still thick with their stench.
“Tallpaw!” Reena thrust her muzzle closer. “What are you doing here? Is WindClan okay?”
He blinked at her. The rogues? He’d found them! He could hardly believe it. As he searched for words, Reena sniffed him, her ginger-and-white pelt pricking. “Why are you here?” she asked.
Jake lifted his muzzle shakily. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Talltail flashed him a warning look. Don’t say any more!
“Do you need help?” Reena’s eyes sparked with worry. “Did Heatherstar send you?”
The buzzing of the monsters was growing louder again. Algernon glanced over his shoulder. “We’d better get out of here.” He began to nudge Jake and Talltail into the forest. “Our camp’s at the bottom of the slope.”
Talltail turned and limped toward the cover of the trees.
“You’re hurt!” Reena pressed beside him.
“Just bruised,” Talltail told her. The shower of mud had battered him hard and his hind leg ached from the run-in with the fox. At least the scratch on his foreleg was numb from the dock leaf. “I’m fine.”
“Good.” Reena guided him through a swathe of bracken, which was limp and wilting in the cold, damp air.
Algernon hurried Jake after them. “Didn’t you realize you were walking into a herd of monsters?”
“I thought it was a grass-cutter,” Jake told him.
“Out here?” Algernon stared at him as though he was crazy.
Reena paused and sniffed. “You’re a kittypet!” Her gaze jerked toward Talltail. “What are you doing with a kittypet?”
Talltail swallowed. “He helped me find my way through Twolegplace.”
Reena frowned. “We’d better keep moving. You can explain everything when we’re safe.”
“I’ll lead.” Algernon pushed past her, nosing through the bracken and heading downslope.
Brambles clustered between the trees, fighting hawthorn bushes for the light at the edge of the forest. Talltail kept his eyes on Algernon, trying to follow his paw steps through the tangle of branches.
“Oomph!” Jake gasped as he stumbled behind.
“Are you okay?” Talltail called.
“He’s fine.” Reena was helping Jake to his paws. “Follow me.” She nosed her way between Talltail and Jake and they walked single file, following Algernon.
A stream cut through the trees like a tiny gorge, its banks steep. Algernon sprang across it easily. Talltail teetered on the brink, gazing down at the thin trickle of water below.
“Just jump!’ Algernon urged.
Talltail launched himself off the edge, his paws slithering on the mud. He reached out and dug his claws into the far bank and hauled himself up.
“A WindClan cat shouldn’t be out here.” Algernon shook his head. “You belong on the moor.”
Reena landed lightly beside him. “Why did you come?”
A thump sounded behind, followed by a small splash. Talltail glanced back. Jake had disappeared. He rushed to the edge of the stream and peered down the steep bank. Jake was writhing at the bottom, trying to find a paw hold in the mud. Talltail curled his hind claws deep into the earth and leaned down, snatching at Jake’s scruff and holding him while the kittypet regained his footing.
“Thanks,” Jake grunted. Talltail leaned back as Jake scrambled up beside him.
Reena was looking confused. “Why are you helping a kittypet?” She wrinkled her nose as she looked at Jake.
“He helped me,” Talltail told her simply.
“Come on.” Algernon nodded them onward. The monsters were still roaring at the edge of the trees. “We can talk about it when we reach camp.”
“Is this where you live now?” Talltail asked.
“It’s just temporary,” Algernon told him, padding away.
Bracken scraped Talltail’s nose as Algernon led them through another clump. He narrowed his eyes against the fronds, blinking as he emerged into a small, leaf-strewn clearing. Mole lay between the roots of an elm, a gray bundle of fur in a heap of dark green moss. He lifted his head as Talltail followed Algernon from the bracken. “What’s he doing here?”
“Who?” Bess stuck her head out from beneath a holly bush. Her eyes widened and she slid out, her black-and-white pelt sleek. Talltail figured they must have lived well since they left the Clan.
“Tallpaw?” Bess blinked. “Is that you?”
“I’m Talltail now.”
“You have your warrior name!” Reena mewed in surprise. “Congratulations!”
Bess’s gaze flicked to Reena. “Where did you find them?”
“I think they found us, by the sound of it,” Reena told her.
Jake stopped beside Talltail and breathed softly in his ear. “What do we do now?”
“Act normal,” Talltail murmured. Lifting his muzzle, he stared at Bess. “I’m glad I managed to find you.” His explanation would sound more convincing if he offered it before they asked. His thoughts raced. What reason could he give for tracking them here?
“Is there trouble in WindClan?” Bess asked.
“No.” Talltail shifted his paws. “Everything’s fine. But . . . but when I watched you leave at the end of greenleaf, I realized there was more to see than just WindClan territory.” He felt his fur smooth as he eased into his story. “I was hoping you’d let me travel with you.”
Algernon looked at Jake, eyes narrow. “What about the kittypet?”
“His name is Jake,” Talltail meowed.
The bushes swished on the far side of the small clearing and Sparrow slid out. “Tallpaw?”
Talltail swung around, meeting the brown tom’s impassive gaze. “Hi, Sparrow. It’s Talltail now.” He swallow
ed his rage as it tightened his throat. A vision flooded his mind: He was pinning Sparrow to the ground, claws deep in the murderer’s throat, blood bubbling at the tom’s mouth.
“You’re trembling.” Sparrow’s cool mew snapped him from his thoughts. “Are you all right?”
Talltail shifted his paws, thinking fast. “We were nearly squashed by two-pawed monsters.”
Bess faced Sparrow. “He says he wants to travel with us.”
“What about WindClan?”
“I was tired of all the duties and rules,” Talltail mewed. “I wanted to see what it was like to live free, like you.”
“And the kittypet?” Sparrow’s gaze didn’t give away anything. He simply flicked it from Talltail to Jake.
“He’s been helping me track you down,” Talltail explained. “He’ll be going home now that I’ve found you.” Talltail felt Jake stiffen beside him.
“Not yet.” Bess sniffed Jake’s muddy pelt. “You look like you need a rest and a meal. You must both stay for the night.” She flicked her tail. “Reena, will you find them some moss to make nests?”
Talltail stepped forward. “Thanks, but we can find our own moss,” he told her. “I didn’t come here to be a burden.” Before any of the rogues could argue he padded across the clearing and pushed into the bracken, relieved to hear Jake trotting after him.
“What are we doing?” Jake mewed as soon as they were far enough away from the clearing to speak privately.
“You’re going home,” Talltail told him.
Jake’s eyes flashed with hurt. “And you’re going to live here with the rogue who killed your father?”
“Of course not,” Talltail snapped. “I just need to wait for my chance.”
“Then what?” Jake leaned closer, lowering his voice. “Sparrow looks tough. What are you planning to do to him?”
Kill him. Dread hollowed Talltail’s belly. He’d never killed a cat before. He forced himself to picture his father yowling in terror as mud showered around him, sealing him in darkness forever. He growled.
“Talltail?” Jake’s eyes were like twin moons, huge and pale. “What’s your plan?”